Decking My Halls!

As Christmas is on the horizon, my dreams start to fill with evergreens and stuffing, cozy fires, classic Holiday tunes, fuzzy mittens, and of course all the memories from past Decembers. Every year I like to make special Christmas projects for my house or my belly, so I thought I'd share some that I am planning to do this year. I won't be able to show you how mine turn out because I cannot start them until Dec 3. Too much to do for School!! 

Gingerbread Hearts

I think these are so sweet. They are like the grown-up version of the ones you make in school as children. 

Snow Globe Terrariums 

As a child (and still now) my favourite Christmas decoration was my mom's little village and she always let me (or I just took over) set it all up any way I liked. I would engineer that little city like a professional planner making decisions about which building should go where. Does it make sense that the barber go on the edge of town? Will anyone visit? It's very far to walk there etc…and so on until I had the thing laid out on the mantel complete with the sparkling fake snow that depleted each year. Now that I have my own house, and no village, I have had to come up with creative (inexpensive) ways to create one. And so over the last couple of years I have collected little things from gift shops and  antique stores to create a tiny little make-shift version of my childhood fantasies. 

I made something like this (pictured above) last year, only mine didn't light up because I didn't have the white twinkle lights. This year my goal is to have a little lit city! 

Festive Mason Jar

Simple yet beautiful! Will go perfect on a side table. Just need to find some floating candles.

Pine Cone Garland

I have some large pine cones I bought somewhere one year and I have never known what to do with them……so now I have a vision. I am going to hang them on my fire place…which sadly has no mantle. So it needs some love. Some Pine Cone love! 

Gingerbread House

Every year I say I want to do gingerbread houses and every year I don't do it. Not since 2005! So seeing how i have a bit of time off, I think this is the year. I want to do a European one this year….so no colourful child-like candy or anything…just simple, white icing, powdered sugar, and an adorable little cinnamon log stack. 

Frozen Candle Holder

Making these is actually quite simple, just takes a bit of time to freeze! Fun for the porch or deck, especially for a Christmas Party! 

Happy Christmas Decorating Everyone! 

An Art Gallery Tour & A Reminiscence of Childhood Visualizing

Today our class had the opportunity to visit the Two Rivers Gallery. I really enjoy going there and haven't been since the beginning of the semester. Although I prefer to visit galleries on my own or in small groups I enjoyed the guided activity provided by Carolyn Holmes, the Public Programs Manager. 

The guided activity involved deep breathing, visualizing, and interacting with art in a unconventional way. Maybe I am a little yoga-geek, so I admit I thoroughly enjoyed this activity as I did last year when we did a similar thing. I actually made a few connections with the activity and my practicum; my students were learning to deep breath as laid out in the program Mind Up! and I was teaching them to visualize using Adrienne Gear strategies. So really it felt as though I was still in school. And yes I would totally do that activity with my students!! I was a very imaginative child and I really believe that modern technology hinders children's imaginations (you may disagree) to the point where we must teach them how to use them in school. 

It may be just me (and I have no research to back me up) but I do not remember learning how to visualize in the 90's. I remember my teacher telling me to pay attention and quit day dreaming…I didn't need any help making pictures of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory in my head….I could see it all very clearly. I could taste the edible tea cups and smell the liquid chocolate vividly. So it is very interesting to me that we need to teach this concept….I see the importance for sure….but I think it's a symptom of our modern culture. I also understand many of the new things in school and all the good advances since I was a kid….but every now and then I think back to my own little grade 3 classroom and reflect on the past….and I think they didn't have it all wrong. ;)

Also I loved Will Gills exhibit! Here he is….

source

2013 UNBC ART SHOW

The Art Show this year was a neat opportunity for our cohort to share the stories, the art, the successes and hardships of teaching Fine Arts in the classroom. I thought everyone did an excellent job displaying the art and you could tell that the families appreciated it as did the students. 

Out of my five students, I had three visit the show and they seemed proud of their art and excited to see the art from the other schools. I think events like these are important when we talk about celebrating our learning. That was a topic from last year that I think is important, but can easily be overlooked due to time pressures within the curriculum. 

I was thinking the other day what a neat idea this would be at the school level. Have each classroom create some type of visual art and either use all of the student's art, or select the best pieces and set them up in the gym. Invite the families to be a part of this. Take the afternoon and have classes come (two by two or something) to the gym and walk around admiring the art. What a neat way to show that art is important and should be valued by the community! 

Here are a few pictures from the show of the monochromatic silhouettes that my students created:
(Kathleen's pumpkin art is also in the final picture)

A Reflection of My Gong-Show Art Lesson....

Although I think my students enjoyed painting during fine arts, it was a management and organization challenge. Challenge may be an understatement. And of course I was being formally observed. Of course I would choose the most difficult task to try when I am being watched and my every move is being recorded. But I really wanted to do art that included skill....so here we are. 

We survived through it; not too much paint ended up on the floor. The clean up was wild but it happened. Through all of this I learned a lot. Don't EVER paint with Grade 7 students. That's what I was thinking at first. But now I realize that I just need to refine my instructions, my modelling, and my organizational skills. (Also my EA's were completely AMAZING)! First of all I needed to take out the paint and show my students exactly what to do! Like have a pallet of paint and begin painting. Do a few lines. Then bring out a finished version of the art. Just like on the Food Network when Martha says, "now I'm going to put this in the oven. I am taking out one I've already made before. And that's a good thing!" 

Also getting kids to move their desks from lines into groups, then move to other groups to find their paint colour, then nominating a person to collect the group's materials....then.....starting to paint. 

It looked more like this.....Mrs. Radloff gives instructions. Everyone gets up and desks and chairs start flying. Once the desks are stationed students think they need to stay in 'their desks'. When I clarify it, kids finally get into their colour groups. Then all the kids sit and wait, forgetting to nominate anyone to collect materials. Then Mrs. Radloff thinks, 'you know what? maybe its less chaos if she and the EAs just hand everything out. This entire process is wild, very few children finish, and it took me four more days to get everyone done. Four DAYS.

So as I was reflecting I realized one big thing....CHUNKING. Chunk directions. I could have said, move desks and sit down. Then I could have said okay choose one student and go retrieve materials. Then sit down again. Then I could have modelled the strategy. Then the student could have started. Lots of 'could haves'. I guess that's what practicum is all about.